The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language

The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language:
Understanding the history,
Letters, WordS and Grammar
By Bro Tsaphahyah aka Divine Prospect

How to Study the Nature of Ancient Languages
Through
• History - the branch of knowledge dealing with past events.
• Culture - the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group
• Language - a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural
tradition
Utilizing
• Anthropology - the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humans.
• Archaeology - the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains
• Paleography - the study of ancient writing, including determination of date, decipherment, etc.

History of the Development
of the Hebrew Language

Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic
family of languages.
According to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, during about 1200
to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile,
when the predominant international language in the region was OldAramaic.
Hebrew was nearly extinct as a spoken language by LateAntiquity, but it continued to be used as a literary language and as the
liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew, until its revival as a spoken language in the
late 19th century.
The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, the traditional time of the
reign of David and Solomon. Classified asArchaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural
activities.The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the
Phoenician one that through the Greeks and Etruscans later became the Roman script.The Gezer calendar is written without any
vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it.
The Shebna Inscription, from the tomb of a royal steward found in Siloam, dates to the 7th centuryBCE. Numerous older tablets
have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example Protosinaitic. It is believed that
the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, though the phonetic values are instead inspired by the
acrophonic principle.The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite, and was the first to use a Semitic
alphabet distinct from Egyptian.One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam
Inscription, found near Jerusalem, is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include the ostraca
found near Lachish which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian
captivity of 586 BCE.
In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew means the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between the 10th century BCE and the
turn of the 4th century CE. It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects.The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named
after important literary works associated with them.

Archaic Biblical Hebrew from the 10th to the 6th century BCE, corresponding to the Monarchic Period until the Babylonian Exile and
represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible (Tanach), notably the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges
5). Also called Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew. It was written in a form of the Canaanite script. (A script descended from this is still
used by the Samaritans)
Standard Biblical Hebrew around the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, corresponding to the late Monarchic period and the Babylonian
Exile. It is represented by the bulk of the Hebrew Bible that attains much of its present form around this time. Also called Biblical
Hebrew, Early Biblical Hebrew, Classical Biblical Hebrew (or Classical Hebrew in the narrowest sense).
Late Biblical Hebrew, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BCE, that corresponds to the Persian Period and is represented by certain
texts in the Hebrew Bible, notably the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Basically similar to Classical Biblical Hebrew, apart from a few
foreign words adopted for mainly governmental terms, and some syntactical innovations such as the use of the particle shel (of,
belonging to). It adopted the Imperial Aramaic script (from which the modern Hebrew script descends).
Israelian Hebrew is a proposed northern dialect of biblical Hebrew, attested in all eras of the language, in some cases competing
with late biblical Hebrew as an explanation for non-standard linguistic features of biblical texts.
Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, corresponding to the Hellenistic and Roman Periods before
the destruction of theTemple in Jerusalem and represented by the Qumran Scrolls that form most (but not all) of the Dead Sea
Scrolls. Commonly abbreviated as DSS Hebrew, also called Qumran Hebrew.The Imperial Aramaic script of the earlier scrolls in the
3rd century BCE evolved into the Hebrew square script of the later scrolls in the 1st century CE, also known as ketav Ashuri (Assyrian
script), still in use today.
Mishnaic Hebrew from the 1st to the 3rd or 4th century CE, corresponding to the Roman Period after the destruction of theTemple
in Jerusalem and represented by the bulk of the Mishnah andTosefta within theTalmud and by the Dead Sea Scrolls, notably the Bar
Kokhba Letters and the Copper Scroll. Also calledTannaitic Hebrew or Early Rabbinic Hebrew.

Sometimes the above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the
10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects
from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today, most Hebrew
linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as a set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus
including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE,
Classical Hebrew ceases as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently
declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar KokhbaWar around 135 CE.
Around the 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah, destroying much of Jerusalem
and exiling its population far to the East in Babylon. During the Babylonian captivity, many Israelites were enslaved within the
Babylonian Empire and learned the closely related Semitic language of their captors, Aramaic.The Babylonians had taken mainly
the governing classes of Israel while leaving behind presumably more-compliant farmers and laborers to work the land.Thus for a
significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic.
After Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he released the Jewish people from captivity. "The King of Kings" or Great King of Persia,
later gave the Israelites permission to return. As a result, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew,
also theAssyrian empire before that caused Israel to speak a variant of Aramaic for trade, in Israel-Judea these languages co-
mingled.The Greek Era saw a brief ban on the Hebrew language until the period of the Hasmoneans. By the beginning of the
Common EraAramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian, Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and
intellectual Jews spoke Greek, but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as a vernacular in Judea until it was
displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee, Pharisee, Scribe, Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes
maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from
Hebrew texts. Other opinions exist on the exact date range from the 4th century BCE to the end of the Roman period.

While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its
chief successor in the Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek, scholarly opinions on the exact dating of
that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Geiger and Dalman in thinking that
Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic Period in the 4th century
BCE, and that as a corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Segal, Klausner, and Ben
Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and
especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view.The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946-1948 near
Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, notAramaic.
The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to the average Israelite, and that the language had
evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic
indicates a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. AlongsideAramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel
as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman Period, or
about 200 CE. It continued on as a literary language down through the Byzantine Period from the 4th century CE. Many Hebrew
linguists even postulate the survival of Hebrew as a spoken language until the Byzantine Period, but some historians do not accept
this
After theTalmud (500CE), various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved.The most important isTiberian Hebrew or
Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect ofTiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still
influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew.ThisTiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical
Hebrew" because it is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical
Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed.Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the
remarkable scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the
Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting the Hebrew Bible.The Masoretes inherited a
biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around
the letters.The Syriac alphabet, precursor to theArabic alphabet, also developed vowel pointing systems around this time.The
AleppoCodex, a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely inTiberias, and survives to this
day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language

Photograph courtesy HebrewUniversity
A 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text (above) is the oldest Hebrew writing ever found, archaeologists
said in October 2008.The text, found on a hilltop above the valley where David is said to have battled Goliath, could
give historical support for stories in the Bible. It is the most important archaeological discovery in Israel since the Dead
Sea Scrolls, according to lead researcherYosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology. The exact
nature of the text— believed to be Hebrew written in Proto-Canaanite script, a type of early alphabet. Carbon-14
dating of olive pits found at the archaeological site, as well as analysis of pottery remains, also place the text to
between 1000 and 975 B.C., the time King David, head of the Kingdom of Israel, would have lived.
"This means that historical knowledge of King David could pass from generation to generation in writing—and not just
as oral tradition.“Garfinkel believes the Elah site and newfound writing could provide historic evidence of the United
Monarchy in the tenth century B.C.That's when King David is said to have united Judea and Israel, establishing a large
kingdom that stretched between the Nile River in present-day Egypt and the Euphrates in Iraq, according to the Bible.
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081103-hebrew-text.html
Elah Fortress Pottery Shard
1000 – 975 BCE

Siloam Tunnel Inscription
701 BCE
The Shiloah (Siloam) inscription is a passage of inscribed text found in the
Hezekiah tunnel which brings water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam,
located in the City of David in East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shiloah or
"Silwan".The inscription records the construction of the tunnel in the 8th century
BCE. It is among the oldest extant records of its kind written in Hebrew using the
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, and its association with the tunnel provides evidence
for the ancient Biblical narrative.
2 Kings 20:20And the rest of the events of Hezekiah and all his
mighty deeds, and how he made the conduit and the pool, and he
brought the water into the city, they are written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siloam_inscription

Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon
630 BCE
Located south of modernTelAviv-Yafo along the Mediterranean coast, the small Iron Age fortress known today
as Mezad Hashavyahu was occupied for a relatively brief period during the latter half of the 7th century BCE.
Archaeologists excavating the site in 1960 unearthed seven inscribed items, including six ostraca written in
Hebrew. Ostraca are pottery shards that were reused after the pot was broken as a writing surface.Written on
one of these pieces is the appeal of a farm worker whose garment was confiscated by a supervisor as collateral
on the grounds that the worker failed to meet his daily quota of grain and owed the rest.The worker claims that
he did meet the quota and appeals to the local governor to expedite the return of his garment.
Exodus 22:25 – 26 If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must
return it to him before the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his
skin. In what else shall he sleep?Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed,
for I am compassionate
Source: http://cojs.org/cojswiki/index.php/Mezad_Hashavyahu_Ostracon,_c._630_BCE

Lachish Ostraca
586 BCE
The Lachish Letters (Hoshaiah Letters) are a series of letters written in carbon ink in Ancient Hebrew on clay ostraca.The
letters were discovered at the excavations at Lachish (Tel ed-Duweir).
The individual ostraca probably comes from the same broken clay pot and were most likely written in a short period of time.
They were written to Joash, possibly the commanding officer at Lachish, from Hoshaiah, a military officer stationed in a city
close to Lachish (possibly Mareshah). In the letters, Hoshaiah defends himself to Joash regarding a letter he either was or was
not supposed to have read.The letters also contain informational reports and requests from Hoshaiah to his superior.The
letters were probably written shortly before Lachish fell to the Babylonian army in 588/6 BC during the reign of Zedekiah, king
of Judah (ref. Jeremiah 34:7).The ostraca were discovered by J.L. Starkey in January–February, 1935 during the third campaign
of theWellcome excavations.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachish_letters

Jerucal ben Shelemiah Seal
586 BCE
“Belonging toYehuchal son of Shelemiyahu son of Shovi.”The Book of Jeremiah
twice mentions aYehuchal (Jehucal in English Bibles) son of Shelemiah, indicating
that this bulla dates to the late seventh-early sixth century B.C.E.The bulla was
found in excavations of the City of David.
Jeremiah 37:3 King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehukal son of Shelemiah with the priest
Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: "Please pray
to the LORD our God for us.“
Source: http://cojs.org/cojswiki/index.php/Jerucal_ben_Shelemiah_Seal,_586_BCE

COINS FROM THE SECOND JEWISH REVOLT
132 – 135 CE
Bar Kochba,
Silver Sela
134/135 CE
Eleazar the Priest,
silver denarius
132/133 CE
Bar Kochba,
20-24mm. Bronze,
134/135 CE
Bar Kochba,
18-21mm. Bronze,
“Jerusalem”
133/134 CE
Bar Kochba,
Large Bronze,
133/134 CE
Bar Kochba Revolt coinage were coins issued by the Jews during the Bar Kochba revolt against the Roman Empire of 132-135AD.
During the Revolt, large quantities of coins were issued in silver and copper with rebellious inscriptions, all being overstruck over
foreign (mostly Roman) coins, when a file was used to remove the designs of the original coins, such as the portrait of the Roman
Emperor.The undercoin can clearly be seen on some of the silver coins because they were not filed down so as not to lose the value
of the silver. On the bronze coins it is very difficult to see the underlying coin because they were filed down prior to the over-
striking. In rare instances, the coin cracked when it was overstruck.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kochba_Revolt_coinage

“Speak to Aaron and his sons:Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them:
The Lord bless you and protect you!
The Lord deal kindly and graciously with you!
The Lord bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace!
Thus they shall link My name with the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
(Numbers 6:23-27)
In Numbers 6:22–27, the priests are instructed to bless the people of Israel with a three-part blessing known as the Priestly
Blessing (or Priestly Benediction).The words of this blessing appear on two small, silver amulets discovered in the HinnomValley
south of Jerusalem’s Old City.The amulets date to around 600 BCE, hundreds of years before the oldest known copy of any
biblical manuscript.Amulets are common throughout the ancient world and are still used today to protect the wearer from
spiritual and physical evils.The inscriptions on these amulets conclude with parts of the Priestly Blessing.
Source: http://cojs.org/cojswiki/index.php/Silver_Scroll_Amulets_from_Ketef_Hinnom,_c._600_BCE

The Septuagint (meaning seventy), is a translation of the Hebrew Bible and some related texts intoKoine Greek.The title and its
Roman numeral acronym LXX refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who completed the translation as early as the late 2nd
century BCE.As the primary Greek translation of the OldTestament, it is also called theGreek OldTestament.This translation is quoted
in the NewTestament, particularly in the Pauline epistles, and also by the Apostolic Fathers and later Greek Church Fathers.
The traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation for use by the manyAlexandrian Jews who were not fluent in Hebrew
but fluent in Koine Greek, which was the lingua franca of Alexandria, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean at the time.
The date of the 3rd century BCE, given in the legend, is supported (for theTorah translation) by a number of factors, including the
Greek being representative of early Koine, citations beginning as early as the 2nd century BCE, and early manuscripts datable to the
2nd century.
The translation process of the Septuagint can be broken down into several distinct stages, during which the social milieu of the
translators shifted from Hellenistic Judaism to Early Christianity.The translation began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by
132 BCE, initially inAlexandria, but in time elsewhere as well.
The oldest manuscripts of the LXX include 2nd century BCE fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957),
and 1st century BCE fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the Minor Prophets (Alfred Rahlfs nos. 802,
803, 805, 848, 942, and 943)..
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint

Dead Sea Scrolls
300 BCE – 70 CE

The Dead Sea Scrolls in the narrow sense of Qumran Caves Scrolls are a collection of some 981 different texts discovered between
1946 and 1956 in eleven caves from the immediate vicinity of the ancient settlement at Khirbet Qumran in theWest Bank.The
caves are located about 2 kilometres inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name.
The texts are of great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second oldest known surviving
manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which
preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late SecondTemple Judaism.
Most of the texts are written in Hebrew, with some inAramaic (in different regional dialects, including Nabataean), and a few in
Greek. Most texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus and one on copper
The larger consensus is that the QumranCaves Scrolls date from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE (see "Age"
paragraph in this article and the dedicated site of the Israel Museum). Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series
beginning with John Hyrcanus (135–104 BCE) and continuing until the First Jewish-RomanWar (66–73 CE), supporting the
radiocarbon and paleographic dating of the scrolls. Manuscripts from additional Judean desert sites go back as far as the
eighth century BCE to as late as the 11th centuryCE.
The scrolls have traditionally been identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although some recent
interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or
other unknown Jewish groups.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

The Nash Papyrus is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898 byW. L. Nash, the secretary of the Society of
BiblicalArchaeology. He presented them to Cambridge University Library in 1903.They comprise a single sheet and are not part of
a scroll.The papyrus is of unknown provenance, although allegedly from Fayyum.The text was first described by Stanley A. Cook
in 1903.Though dated by Cook to the 2nd century AD, subsequent reappraisals have pushed the date of the fragments back to
about 150-100 BC.The papyrus was by far the oldest Hebrew manuscript fragment known at that time, before the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.
Twenty four lines long, with a few letters missing at each edge, the papyrus contains theTen Commandments in Hebrew, followed
by the start of the ShemaYisrael prayer.The text of theTenCommandments combines parts of the version from Exodus 20:2-17
with parts from Deuteronomy 5:6-21. A curiosity is its omission of the phrase "house of bondage", used in both versions, about
Egypt — perhaps a reflection of where the papyrus was composed.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Papyrus

The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the SamaritanTorah is a manuscript of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the
Samaritan alphabet and used as a scripture by the Samaritans. It constitutes their entire biblical canon.
Some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the MasoreticText. Most are minor variations in the spelling of words
or grammatical constructions, but others involve significant semantic changes, such as the uniquely Samaritan commandment to
construct an altar on Mount Gerizim. Nearly two thousand of these textual variations agree with the Koine Greek Septuagint and some
are shared with the LatinVulgate.Throughout their history, Samaritans have made use of translations of the Samaritan Pentateuch
intoAramaic, Greek andArabic as well as liturgical and exegetical works based upon it.
Samaritans attach special importance to the Abisha Scroll used in the Samaritan synagogue of Nablus. It consists of a continuous
length of parchment sewn together from the skins of rams that, according to a Samaritan tradition, were ritually sacrificed.The text is
written in gold letters. Rollers tipped with ornamental knobs are attached to both ends of the parchment and the whole is kept in a
cylindrical silver case when not in use. Samaritans claim it was penned by Abishua, great-grandson of Aaron (1 Chronicles 6:50),
thirteen years after the entry into the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua, son of Nun, although contemporary scholars
describe it as a composite of several fragmentary scrolls each penned between the 12th and 14th centuries CE. Other manuscripts of
the Samaritan Pentateuch consist of vellum or cotton paper written upon with black ink. Numerous manuscripts of the text exist, but
none written in the original Hebrew or in translation predates the MiddleAges.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan_Pentateuch

Wadi Murabba'at Manuscripts
132 – 135 AD
Excavated in January 1952, caves found 11 miles south of the Dead Sea site, manuscripts were found dating to the time of
the Simon bar Kochba revolt, (A.D. 132-135). Archeologists found in Cave 2, fragments from the books of Genesis,
Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, along with Isaiah. Also one of the oldest papyrus manuscripts of the minor
prophets was discovered, this manuscript was nearly identical to the MasoreticText, affirming a standardization of the
text by the 2nd century, only three variants existed.
Source: http://www.truthnet.org/Bible-Origins/10_Old-Testament-Tanakh-Manuscripts/

Syrio-Aramaic Peshitta
5th – 12th Century CE

The general, but not universal, consensus is that the OldTestament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew,
probably in the 2nd century AD…
The word itself is a feminine form, meaning "simple", as in "easy to be understood". It seems to have been used to distinguish the
version from others which are encumbered with marks and signs in the nature of a critical apparatus. However, the term as a
designation of the version has not been found in any Syriac author earlier than the 9th or 10th century.
As regards to the OldTestament, the antiquity of the version is admitted on all hands.The tradition, however, that part of it was
translated from Hebrew into Syriac for the benefit of Hiram in the days of Solomon is surely a myth.That a translation was made
by a priest namedAssa, or Ezra, whom the king of Assyria sent to Samaria, to instruct the Assyrian colonists mentioned in 2 Kings
17, is equally legendary.That the translation of the OldTestament and NewTestament was made in connection with the visit of
Thaddaeus to Abgar at Edessa belongs also to unreliable tradition. Mark has even been credited in ancient Syriac tradition with
translating his own Gospel (written in Latin, according to this account) and the other books of the NewTestament into Syriac.
But whatTheodore of Mopsuestia says of the OldTestament is true of both: "These Scriptures were translated into the tongue of
the Syriacs by someone indeed at some time, but who on earth this was has not been made known down to our day". F. Crawford
Burkitt concluded that the translation of the OldTestament was probably the work of Jews, of whom there was a colony in
Edessa about the commencement of theChristian era.The older view was that the translators were Christians, and that the work
was done late in the 1st century or early in the 2nd.The OldTestament known to the early Syrian church was substantially that of
the Palestinian Jews. It contained the same number of books but it arranged them in a different order.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshitta

Cairo Geniza Fragments
870 – 19th Century CE

The Cairo Geniza is a collection of some 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that were found in the geniza or storeroom of the Ben
Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt.These manuscripts outline a 1,000-year continuum (870 CE to 19th century) of Jewish
Middle-Eastern and North African history and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.
The Genizah texts are written in various languages, especially Hebrew, Arabic andAramaic, mainly on vellum and paper, but also on
papyrus and cloth.
In addition to containing Jewish religious texts such as Biblical,Talmudic and later Rabbinic works (some in the original hands of the
authors), the Genizah gives a detailed picture of the economic and cultural life of the North African and Eastern Mediterranean
regions, especially during the 10th to 13th centuries. It is now dispersed among a number of libraries, including the libraries of
Cambridge University and the University of Manchester. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old
Cairo, and the collection includes a number of old documents bought in Cairo in the latter nineteenth century.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Geniza

Masoretic Text
Aleppo Codex: 9th Century CE
LENINGRAD CODEX: 10th CENTURY CE

The MasoreticText is the authoritative Hebrew text of theTanakh for Rabbinic Judaism. However, contemporary scholars seeking to
understand the history of the Hebrew Bible’s text use a range of other sources.These include Greek and Syriac translations,
quotations from rabbinic manuscripts, the Samaritan Pentateuch and others. Many of these are older than the Masoretic text and
often contradict it.While the MasoreticText defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these
biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah.
The MT is widely used as the basis for translations of the OldTestament in Protestant Bibles, and in recent years (since 1943) also for
some Catholic Bibles, although the Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the Septuagint, as they hold it to be divinely inspired.
In modern times the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the MT to be nearly identical to some texts of theTanakh dating from 200 BCE
but different from others.
The MT was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries
CE.Though the consonants differ little from the text generally accepted in the early 2nd century (and also differ little from some
Qumran texts that are even older), it has numerous differences of both greater and lesser significance when compared to (extant
4th century) manuscripts of the Septuagint, a Greek translation (made in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE) of the Hebrew Scriptures
that was in popular use in Egypt and Israel.
The oldest extant manuscripts of the MasoreticText date from approximately the 9th century CE, and theAleppo Codex (once the
oldest complete copy of the MasoreticText, but now missing itsTorah section) dates from the 10th century.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoretic_Text

Semitic Thought vs Hellenistic Thought

Source: The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible by Jeff Benner

The Four Elements of Ancient Language
• Pictograms – Concrete items in environment
• Ideograms – Abstract concepts in the mind
• Logograms – WRITTEN Words IN A SENTENCE
• Phonograms – Sounds OF Letters and WordS

Taw

Palestinian
The Eretz Israel "Palestinian" vocalization or Eretz Israel "Palestinian" pointing or Eretz Israel "Palestinian"
niqqud is a system of diacritics (niqqud) devised by the Masoretes of Jerusalem to add to the consonantal text
of the Hebrew Bible to indicate vowel quality, reflecting the Hebrew of Jerusalem. The Palestinian system is no
longer in use, having been supplanted by theTiberian vocalization system.The Palestinian vocalization
reflects the Hebrew of Palestine of at least the 7th century CE. A common view among scholars is that the
Palestinian system preceded theTiberian system, but later came under the latter's influence and became
more similar to theTiberian tradition of the ben Asher school. All known examples of the Palestinian
vocalization come from the Cairo Geniza, discovered at the end of the 19th century, although scholars had
already known of the existence of a "Palestinian pointing" from the MahzorVitry. In particular, the Palestinian
piyyutim generally make up the most ancient of the texts found, the earliest of which date to the 8th or 9th
centuries and predate most of the known Palestinian biblical fragments.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_vocalization
Vocalization

Babylonian
The Babylonian vocalization, also known as Babylonian supralinear punctuation, or Babylonian pointing
or Babylonian niqqud Hebrew is a system of diacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols devised by the
Masoretes of Babylon to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible to indicate the proper
pronunciation of words (vowel quality), reflecting the Hebrew of Babylon.The Babylonian system is no
longer in use, having been supplanted by theTiberian vocalization system.The simple Babylonian
vocalization system was created between the 6th and 7th centuries, while the complex system developed
later.There is evidence that Babylonian Hebrew had emerged as a distinct dialect by the end of the 9th
century. Babylonian Hebrew reached its peak in the 8th to 9th centuries, being used from Persia to
Yemen. Under Muslim hegemony in the 10th century, the main academies disappeared and the
Babylonian vocalization was replaced by theTiberian vocalization. However, contemporaryYemenite
Hebrew is thought to be the descendent of a variety of Babylonian Hebrew, as represented in the
Babylonian system.The first example of the Babylonian vocalization to become known to modern
scholars was a codex of the Prophets discovered in 1839 at Chufut-Kale.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_vocalization

Tiberian
Tiberian Hebrew is the canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh committed to writing by
Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Judea c. 750–950 CE.They wrote in
the form ofTiberian vocalization, which employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and
consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents (two related systems of cantillation signs or
te'amim). These together with the marginal notes masora magna and masora parva make up theTiberian
apparatus.Though the written vowels and accents came into use only c. 750 CE, the oral tradition they reflect
is many centuries older, with ancient roots.
TheTiberian vocalization, Tiberian pointing, orTiberian niqqud (Hebrew: ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫ב‬ ַ‫ט‬ ‫ניקוד‬) is a system of diacritics
(niqqud) devised by the Masoretes ofTiberias to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible to produce
the MasoreticText.This system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts as well.TheTiberian
vocalization marks vowels, stress, and makes finer distinctions of consonant quality and length, and also
serves as punctuation. While theTiberian system was devised forTiberian Hebrew, it has become the
dominant system for vocalizing all forms of Hebrew, having long since eclipsed the Babylonian and
Palestinian vocalization systems.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberian_Hebrew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberian_vocalization

MasoreticText Diacritic Markings (Based onTiberianVocalization)

Matres Lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis (from Latin "mothers of reading", singular form:
mater lectionis, Hebrew: ‫יָאה‬ ִ‫ר‬ ְ‫ק‬ ‫ם‬ ֵ‫א‬mother of reading), refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel.The letters
that do this in Hebrew are ‫א‬aleph, ‫ה‬he, ‫ו‬waw and ‫י‬yud. The yod and waw in particular are more often vowels than they are
consonants. In Arabic, the matres lectionis (though they are much less often referred to thus) are ‫ا‬alif, ‫و‬waw and ‘ya.Because the
scripts used to write some Semitic languages lack vowel letters, unambiguous reading of a text might be difficult. Therefore, to
indicate vowels (mostly long), consonant letters are used. The earliest method of indicating some vowels in Hebrew writing
was to use the consonant letters yod ‫י‬, waw ‫ו‬, he ‫ה‬, and aleph ‫א‬of the Hebrew alphabet to also write long vowels in some cases.
Originally such ‫א‬and ‫ה‬were put only at the end of words, while ‫י‬and ‫ו‬were used mainly to write the original diphthongs….
Most commonly, yod ‫י‬indicates i or e, while waw ‫ו‬indicates o or u.Aleph ‫א‬ was not systematically developed as a mater
lectionis in Hebrew (as it was inAramaic andArabic), but it is occasionally used to indicate a vowel. At the end of a word, He ‫ה‬
can also be used to indicate that a vowel a should be pronounced. In pre-exilic Hebrew, there was a significant development of
the use of the letter He ‫ה‬to indicate word final vowels other than ī and ū. Matres lectionis are found in Ugaritic, Moabite, South
Arabian and the Phoenician alphabets, but are widely used only in Hebrew,Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mater_lectionis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Hebrew

Lashawan Qadash
The Lashawan Qadash is translated as “HolyTongue”.This vocalization system was popularized
by Black Hebrew Israelites in America in the 20th century.The premise for this method is derived
upon the fact that since Paleo Hebrew did not utilize vowel points, this indicated that only one vowel
sound was used…Ah.This method relies upon reading the Paleo Hebrew and Modern Hebrew text
without the diacritic markings. It is the vocalization system of choice by most Black Hebrew Israelite
camps in America today.

Roots- Letters
Trunk – Parent (Bilateral syntax)
Branches – Child (Trilateral consonants)
Leaves –Variations of Child (Additions toTrilateral Consonants)

Understanding Conjunction, The Definite Article and Prepositions
A man focused on a particular sight
A tent peg used to hold together a tent or used to fasten items
A shepherd’s staff used to hook and pull the sheep towards him
People live inside the tent
Fish is caught from the water, Life comes from blood
Item sizes are compared to the hand

Verb Conjugations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefixes_in_Hebrew

How to Identify Gender and Number
Possessive Construct

Pronominal Suffixes (Identifying The Person)
Singular Nouns

Verb Conjugations
Perfect Tense (completed action)
Imperfect Tense (Incomplete action)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffixes_in_Hebrew

The Basic Root is Qal which is in the simple Active voice
Qatal meansTo Slay/Kill (Strong’s H6991)

Source: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Five/Attributive_Usage/attributive_usage.html
Source: Learn to Read Biblical Hebrew Vol 2 by Jeff Benner

The preposition ‫את‬/ et/ plays an important role in Hebrew grammar. Its most common use is to introduce a direct object; for
example, English I see the book is in Hebrew aˈni roˈe et ha-ˈsefer/ (literally I see /et/ the-book). However, ‫את‬/ et/ is used only with
semantically definite direct objects, such as nouns with the, proper nouns, and personal pronouns; with semantically indefinite
direct objects, it is simply omitted: ani ro e sefer (I see a book) does not use ‫את‬/ et/.This has no direct translation into English, and
is best described as an object particle — that is, it denotes that the word it precedes is the direct object of the verb. In Biblical
Hebrew, there is possibly another use of /et/. Waltke and O'Connor (pp. 177–178) make the point: "...(1) ...sign of the accusative ...
(2) More recent grammarians regard it as a marker of emphasis used most often with definite nouns in the accusative role.
Source: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Six/Object_Pronouns/object_pronouns.html

The royal "we", or majestic plural (pluralis majestatis in Latin, literally, "the plural of majesty"), is the use of a plural
pronoun to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a sovereign (e.g., a monarch or sultan) or religious
leader (e.g., the Pope or a bishop).The more general word for the use of we to refer to oneself is nosism. However the
use as majestic plural (to denote the excellence, power, and dignity of the person who speaks or writes) is the most
common one.
Speakers employing the royal we refer to themselves using a grammatical number other than the singular (i.e., in
plural or dual form). Several prominent epithets of the Bible describe the Jewish God in plural terms: Elohim, Adonai,
and El Shaddai….note that the present Biblical text always employs grammatically singular verb forms and argue that
they represent a majestic plural. Similarly, the God of the Qur‘an employs the Arabic pronoun nahnu ("We") or its
associated verb suffix in many verses
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we

Source: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Eight/Letters_as_Numbers/letters_as_numbers.html

The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon
Critical Edition Bibles
Formal Equivalency Dynamic Equivalency
New King JamesVersion New InternationalVersion
New American Standard Bible New LivingTranslation
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible
The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible
Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
The Journey fromTexts toTranslations: The Origin and Development of the Bible

A Few Things to keep in mind about
Hebrew sentences
• Sentences are read from Right to Left as opposed to
Left to Right in English
• The grammar is structured on aVerb-Subject-Object
premise as opposed to Subject-Verb-Object in English
• There are variations in gutturals (Hard and Soft)

There are several points to note
1. Indefinite article
2. Evolution of Vocalization System
From the Matres Lectionis to the Babylonian/Palestinian/TiberianVocalization
3. Summit instead of Beginning
Concrete vs Abstract
Head of a Mountain onThe landscape example
4. Majestic Plural
5. Direct object Particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that must be associated with another word or phrase to impart meaning, i.e.,
it does not have its own definition

5. Filled/Fatten instead of Create
via Hebraic word study and contextual analysis
Strongs 1254b - bara

Deuteronomy 32:8
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the
number of the sons of God. (ESV) (DSS: / ‫בני‬‫ה‬‫אל‬‫והים‬ )
"When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the sons of Israel. (NASB) (MT: ‫בני‬‫ישר‬‫אל‬ )
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to
the number of the heavenly assembly. (NET) (LXX:ἀγγέλων θεοῦ translated to Hebrew is ‫של‬ ‫מלאכים‬‫אל‬‫והים‬ )
Deuteronomy 32:22
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the
foundations of the mountains. (KJV)
For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol,And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the
foundations of the mountains. (NASB)
ὅτι πῦρ ἐκκέκαυται ἐκ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου καυθήσεται ἕως ᾅδου κάτω καταφάγεται γῆν καὶ τὰ γενήματα αὐτῆς φλέξει θεμέλια ὀρέων (LXX)
In theGreek it’s Hades (HellenisticThought) grave/abode of the dead (the word is Hades not Gehenna)
‫ד־‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫יק‬ ִ‫ת‬ַ‫ו‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫פ‬ ַ‫א‬ ְ‫ב‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫ד‬ ָ‫ק‬ ‫ׁש‬ ֵ‫י־א‬ ִ‫כ‬‫ול‬ֹ‫א‬ ְ‫ׁש‬‫ים׃‬ ִִֽ‫ר‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ד‬ ְ‫ֹוס‬‫מ‬ ‫ט‬ ֵ‫ה‬ַ‫ל‬ ְ‫ת‬ַ‫ו‬ ‫ּה‬ָ‫ל‬ֻ‫יב‬ ִִֽ‫ו‬ ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫ל‬ַ‫ֹאכ‬‫ת‬ַ‫ו‬ ‫ית‬ ִ‫ת‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ‫ת‬ (MT)
In the Hebrew it’s Sheol (HebraicThought) grave/abode of the dead

The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language

Similar to The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language (20)

The Basics of the Biblical Hebrew Language